


The Picture

by PoisonJack



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alpha Jack, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Family Fluff, Gen, General au, Good Dad Jack, M/M, Omega Rhys, Omegaverse, jack is definitely the 'fun' parent, not always a good thing but here it is lol, the ending is too sweet so have a handful of dirt ready to cram into your mouth, this is one of those 'angel is their daughter' fics and i'll fight everyone over it LOL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28861368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack
Summary: Rhys is away on business off-Helios, and Angel finally gets permission to stay home alone while Jack is at work at the office. The alpha CEO isn't the only one missing his mate, and he blows off everything to spend quality-time with their pup instead.Rhys comes back to Helios early, only to take what ends up being his new favorite photo of his family.This was a fic-request from anon:Prompt: Angel calls Jack at work because she misses him/is feeling lonely, and he drops everything to talk to her, even though he can't currently go see her. Can be kid Angel, or teen.She a kiddo in this one lolol
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands), Rhack - Relationship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 47





	The Picture

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really dig writing Angel/much interaction with speaking-age kids, but I’ve taken this with the general-feel of the omegaverse prompts list I wanted to write from as a sort-of freebie and it woooorked and became super cute HAHA sorry anon hope that’s okay! :D We’re doin the rhack-fam business today! xD

Jack squinted at the screen in his office overlooking Elpis, double-checking the math on an algorithm he was writing to speed up Rhys’ echoeye’s processor. It was more or less busy-work to keep him occupied before his meeting, but he was ripped away from it when his private comm rang. 

The picture ID said it was Angel, and Jack looked at the clock to make sure he hadn’t lost track of the day. It was only ten AM; she’d only been alone without him for an hour or so, watching cartoons and getting run of the penthouse while both parents were away. 

Or at least, that’s how things were _supposed_ to be going.

Maybe they _were_ too-quick with allowing her self-supervision. Jack hadn’t expected a call so soon, but Angel’s determined affirmations that she could watch herself were approved by both him _and_ Rhys before the omega left for Elpis a day earlier. He’d figured her independence would’ve at least lasted until lunch.

He wasn’t displeased that his pup was calling him, though, by any means. It might’ve only been a day, but Jack was already feeling lonesome for his mate.

“Hey princess,” the alpha greeted as he turned his whole attention to the real-time visual of their daughter. There were no indicators that anything was amiss, but then, he _did_ worry after her. “You okay? Anything wrong?”

“Hi daddy,” she spoke from his screen unhurriedly. “...can I have some ice-cream?”

Jack grinned. “Ice-cream for breakfast while your mom isn’t home, huh? Do you mean _his_ ice-cream? The triple-chocolate hiding behind the peas?” A little smile played over her face. There was a too-innocent edge there reminiscent of Rhys’ own poor-attempts to hide something. But she already knew that Jack would let her eat whatever she wanted while Rhys was taking care of some business; he’d told her as much with a grin as he’d ruffled her hair before leaving to the office that morning, winking towards the freezer even in implication.

Which meant this call actually had nothing to do with ice-cream as a breakfast-choice.

A slow-smile spread across the alpha’s face as he looked into the echo at his pup. “You bored, kiddo?” Her dark brows scrunched together a moment, lips tight. Jack knew that expression, and his own softened. “You miss your mama, baby?” She still didn’t respond, and it plucked at some string inside of the alpha; she was very intelligent for a pup her age (as expected of _their_ offspring) but she was still just a pup. Regardless of how she’d insisted she was old enough to stay home alone, Jack could see the loneliness there. Or rather, he recognized the look on her face even as she said nothing.

He remembered how big and lonely the penthouse used to feel before Rhys came into his life. It was a distant-memory now, but one he could still feel the edges of in his mind.

“How’s this sound, sweet pea?” the alpha-CEO proposed, meeting his pup’s blue eyes as she listened keenly, “I can’t leave just yet-- Daddy has some morons he needs to talk to about the station’s water-purifiers-” he rolled his eyes, and his daughter smirked on the other end, “but after that, whaddya say I blow off work and me and you turn the living room into a blanket fort?”

Angel’s eyes got as big as saucers, and the pup didn’t try to hide her smile, excitement in her voice. “Really?”

“Oh yeah,” he agreed with a nod, a grin himself. “I’m talkin’ the whole sheet-supply, baby girl. You pick out the ones you wanna use, and I’ll be there in no-time flat to put ‘em up, huh?”

“...can we use the gold ones mom hid in the other room?”

A bolt of pride went through the alpha that his daughter wanted to use the Hyperion-yellow bedsheets Rhys claimed were an eyesore. To be fair, it _was_ the same color found everywhere on Helios, but that was just called having a _brand_. It was bright. _Cheerful_. Both pups and adults _everywhere_ (excluding Rhys) _loved_ it.

Angel had clearly inherited his good-taste.

“A Hyperion-fort? _Now_ you’re talkin’ my language, baby.” He watched as she was already moving towards their sheet-storage, a happiness to her face that he knew he’d put there. 

She looked back into the comm, a sort of cautiously-optimistic edge there. “...can we use all the pillows off the bed, too?”

“Hey, can’t have a fort without _pillows_ , pumpkin. We’ll use every one in the house! How’s that sound?” Her little face brightened, and the direction she’d been moving changed, and Jack realized she was now headed towards her play-room that housed the giant unicorn plush-pillow that was too-big for her own bedroom. He grinned. So _that_ was her angle on that request. “You get Buttstallion too, okay? Every pillow means _every_ pillow, princess. Your pony, too.”

The little noise she made for the explicit-permission made the alpha proud to have pleased his child so much, and he chuckled a little in picturing the small pup dragging the unicorn-plush through the penthouse like her first kill. 

He frowned a bit on second-thought.

“If Buttstallion’s too big for you, you just pick out those sheets and daddy’ll help you move her after my meeting, okay?” The meeting that _should_ be taking place in about five-minutes, and over just as quickly for how little patience he had with the idiots who were supposed to _fix_ the damn issue with Helios’ water-recycling.

“Okay!”

“You want any snacks, sweet-pea? You want daddy to order a pizza?”

Her face looked back into the comm from where she’d been clearly considering how to get the large stuffed unicorn out of the door and down the hall. “For lunch?”

“Nah, for when I get home.” He checked the time again. Maybe it was a bit earlier for lunch already. Second-breakfast? Brunch? It would _almost_ be lunch, anyways. “Are you hungry?”

“...when will you be home?”

Her tone didn’t go missed, and he heard Rhys’ voice in his head saying he’d been working too much lately. It wasn’t like he _ignored_ the things his omega said, but hearing that hopeful note in their pup’s own tone struck something inside of him. “Half-an-hour tops, pumpkin.” Ten-minutes to threaten the group he was expecting, five to close everything down and let his secretary know to cancel the rest of his meetings, and then a swift-return home by the secret-access lifts and channels throughout Helios that only he and his family had access to. Maybe even sooner. “Want that pizza?”

“...can we eat it in the fort?”

“You bet your butt we can eat it in the fort, kiddo.”

“With my pony?”

“Anything you want, princess.” His secretary buzzed him to let him know that the personnel had arrived early, but his attention was on Angel’s smiling face as she babbled on about playing games in the fort and watching _Jeffrey the Cuddly Skag_ , and if he would paint her nails and play with the makeup Nisha had sent the pup’s last birthday.

Jack didn’t even have to think about the threats that rolled from his mouth as he had his _very_ -quick-indeed meeting, wrapping up all his loose-ends and leaving the office in no-time flat. The smile on their daughter’s face was worth it, and her laughs as he lifted her onto his shoulders to pin up sheet-ends to the wall chased away any pervasive thoughts of loneliness for the time being. Jack was glad for the distraction as well.

Angel wasn’t the only one missing her family, apparently, as Rhys showed up hours earlier than expected from Elpis. It took him several minutes to pick his way among the sheet-draped labyrinth that now made up their living room, but he found his alpha and their daughter cuddled up asleep on the giant unicorn plush amidst the eye-searing Hyperion-yellow of their sheet-fort walls.

The alpha had his mouth open, snoring softly but definitely _out_ , a full-face of badly-done make-up to match Angel’s own (no telling which of them did it). There was a half-eaten box of pizza next to the pile of pillows that almost resembled a nest, and the menu-screen of _Jeffrey the Cuddly Skag_ was playing on repeat. Rhys watched with a warm smile as a pastel-pink skag chased a butterfly in a blooming flower-field of some non-existent Pandoran park. They must’ve fallen asleep watching her favorite cartoon.

The omega snapped a photo of the pair before he joined them, moving to the other side of Angel to spoon their napping pup. Jack startled a bit, but the scent of his mate was already in his nostrils, and it was a few quick words of reassurance and the entwining of their fingers before the older man relaxed back into the plush nest, the pizza in his gut sending him right back to sleep.

The new background picture on Rhys’ echo of the pair brought a wide-smile to the omega’s face every time he looked at it. 

Jack had it framed and put on his desk in his office after the fact.

**Author's Note:**

> Rhys has the BEST phone background ever and you can bet he omega-preens about his family being so cute xD 
> 
> I personally was not allowed to be left at home alone until I think 14/15? There are laws about supervision in the states, which was a decent-amount of culture-shock when I saw my first kindergartner walking home from school in japan by himself. I was like 'omg should I stop? Should I call my supervisor and ask her to call a cop to help get this tiny child home? holy fuck where are his parents?' I don't blink twice about it now but yeah different cultures different life haha :D 
> 
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